My mutterings on life, thoughts and actions.

Neil Carmichael

When the Alarm went off at 5am this morning, it was with a great deal of enthusiasm and some nervousness that I got ready for the first ever Breakfast show on Severn FM. A busy day ahead including the official ribbon cutting by Neil Carmichael MP, but first things first, so after some toast and coffee, I got to the Severn FM Studio and met Andy and Caro for the Kick Off.

I really didn’t know what to expect when Andy flicked the switch and we went live, especially as some of the software had frozen when doing a track search with just a couple fo minutes to go, but all of a sudden we were on air and broadcasting to Gloucestershire. In our testing the day before we knew that our broadcasting range was even better than anticipated, with listeners reporting in from as far away as Stroud, Michaelwood, Coleford and Junction 10 of the M5. But it was really interesting how when your speaking it is so different then being in a room full of people, it’s really a different type of public speaking.

We have a number of ways for people to get in touch, from Text and telephone, to Twitter and Facebook. It was brilliant to see people using them to get in touch and also to be able to give feedback and mention the people who were listening. I really did have a great time, it was a good laugh as the 3 of us were just chatting and having a giggle, and hopefully this came across well.

We were enjoying ourselves so much that we were supposed to finish at 9am, but the 9 to 10 show was just going to be a straight music show with no presenter, so we decided to just carry on and finish at 10. Even then we didn’t get everything in we wanted to, which is a good thing I guess as there are lots of breakfast shows to come.

At 10am, many of our guests arrived to see the studio and the opening, including many of those from Hardwicke and Stroud who got us much of the funding to get us this far. Neil Carmichael, the MP for Stroud did us the honour of the ribbon cutting and at risk of a terrible pun, it was one of the better cuts I have seen a Tory make 😉 It was brilliant to have such support from local residents too, and hopefully that will come across in the photos in the paper.

But now the hard work really begins, I’m looking forward to learning how to use the kit involved and how to potentially do my own show. We also need to engage with companies to encourage them that we are a great advertising proposition in order to fund the ongoing service. Hopefully with advertising and programme sponsorship available, we have something for everyone.

So here is to a new era and something else I have never done before, in many ways I am so lucky to be able to get involved in projects like this that are so exciting and a great vehicle for learning new skills.